Zalman ZM-MH200 Dual HDD Docking Station Review

Components and Design

Zalman combined a lot of design and ingenuity into the ZM-MH200 and it should appeal not only to enthusiasts, but general consumers who need to be able to access a variety of storage devices at the office or at home. The top panel includes support for two 3.5" or 2.5" SATA hard drives, two USB 2.0 ports, SD card, and a micro SD card. The only features this device is lacking support for is the newer USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB/s components.

Here's a closer look at the two SATA hard drive doors that include blue LED lights on the left side of each door to show which devices are connected. The buttons on the right release the hard drives from the unit when you have completed pulling data off them.

As we stated before, the ZM-MH200 includes support for two USB 2.0 devices, SD card, and a micro SD card. The design and layout is easy to understand and use, which helps novice users who might be intimidated by all the storage device options associated with this device.

The back panel of the unit includes an eSATA port, USB 2.0 port, power button, and power adapter connection point. One item to note is that if your motherboard does not have an eSATA port through the back I/O panel then you can use the included eSATA bracket to connect it internally to the motherboard. However, when you connect the hub in this fashion, your motherboard may not support this device's hot-swapping capabilities.

The bottom of the device includes five rubber pads to ensure it doesn't move around while the hard drives are spinning up or in use. This is important when you consider two hard drives spinning between 5,400 and 10,000 RPMs.

Here's a closer look at the internal connectors for each SATA hard drive bay. When using eSATA, users can connect two hard drives can be used only if the motherboard supports the Port-Multiplier function. For motherboards that do not support the PM function, only one hard drive can be used in the first slot.